Space Force to take a fresh look at communications satellite needs
Sunday, 09 January 2022 14:31
What mix of satellites will be needed to meet rising demand for connectivity will be the subject of a deep-dive study by the U.S. Space Force.
'Amazing milestone' as NASA fully deploys Webb telescope in space
Sunday, 09 January 2022 08:30
Washington (AFP) Jan 8, 2022
The most powerful space telescope ever built completed a tricky two-week-long deployment phase Saturday, unfolding its final golden mirror panel, as it readies to study every phase of cosmic history.
Engineering teams in the James Webb Space Telescope's control room cheered as confirmation came back that its final wing was deployed and latched into place.
"I'm emotional about it - what

Assessing Perseverance's Seventh Sample Collection
Sunday, 09 January 2022 08:30
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 10, 2022
On Wednesday, Dec. 29 (sol 306) Perseverance successfully cored and extracted a sample from a Mars rock. Data downlinked after the sampling indicates that coring of the rock the science team nicknamed Issole went smoothly. However, during the transfer of the bit that contains the sample into the rover's bit carousel (which stores bits and passes tubes to the tube processing hardware inside the r

Prestwick Spaceport Files Planning Application Notice
Sunday, 09 January 2022 08:30
Prestwick, Scotland (SPX) Jan 10, 2022
South Ayrshire Council has started the process of submitting a formal planning application for the Prestwick Spaceport development. The Proposal of Application Notice (POAN) is the first step in the planning process for Prestwick Spaceport and signals the intent to apply for planning permission in early 2022.
The submission of the POAN follows the Council's submission of an Environmental I

Voyager Space Completes Acquisition of Space Micro
Sunday, 09 January 2022 08:30
Denver CO (SPX) Jan 06, 2022
Voyager Space Inc. (Voyager), a global leader in space exploration has announced it has completed the acquisition of a majority stake in San Diego-based Space Micro. Voyager will provide strategic operations support to help advance Space Micro's technology throughput to civil, commercial, and defense customers.
Space Micro is an innovative, engineering-driven business focused on advancing

Arianespace to launch PLATiNO 1 and 2 on Vega and Vega C
Sunday, 09 January 2022 08:30
Paris, France (SPX) Jan 07, 2022
Arianespace has been awarded a launch contract by SITAEL, with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) as the final customer, to orbit PLATiNO 1 and 2 satellites, between 2022 and 2024 on Vega and Vega C.
PLATiNO 1 and 2 are Earth observation small satellites operating on Sun-synchronous orbits. PLATiNO 1 will embark a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), operating in the X band, while PLATiNO 2 will ca

China's lunar rover travels over 1km on the moon
Sunday, 09 January 2022 08:30
Beijing (XNA) Jan 10, 2022
China's Yutu 2 lunar rover has traveled more than 1 kilometer on the moon and is still working well, according to the China National Space Administration.
The administration said on Saturday that the distance traveled by the rover reached 1 km on Thursday evening. As of late that night, the robot had moved about 1,004 meters on the lunar soil.
It added that Yutu 2, the second Chinese

Perseverance set to exit Seitah area
Sunday, 09 January 2022 08:30
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 10, 2022
While many reflect on the past and bid it farewell, there's a lot of exciting science to come in the next year. While many were enjoying the days between the Christmas and New Year holidays in the US, at JPL we were working to finish up sampling activities at Issole. We'll soon bid an Auld Lang Syne to the Seitah region.
As lead Mapping Specialist, I get enjoy looking at the road ahead for

Russian rocket is in uncontrolled descent to Earth
Sunday, 09 January 2022 08:30
Washington DC (UPI) Jan 5, 2021
A Russian rocket is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere Wednesday in an uncontrolled descent.
Much of the rocket is expected to burn up as it plunges through the atmosphere, so there likely will not be major damage when it hits.
According to Russia's state-run TASS news agency, the Angara-A5 heavy-lift rocket was launched Dec. 27 to test the Persei booster.
The Europea

Shouzhou XIII crew finishes cargo spacecraft, space station docking test
Sunday, 09 January 2022 08:30
Beijing (XNA) Jan 10, 2022
The Shenzhou XIII astronauts in China's space station core module have completed the manual rendezvous and docking experiment with the Tianzhou 2 cargo craft, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said Saturday.
At the beginning of the experiment, the astronauts in the core module teleoperated the Tianzhou 2 cargo craft to leave the front docking port of the core module's node cabin and mov

Sol 3349: Ridges, Big and Small
Sunday, 09 January 2022 08:30
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 07, 2022
Another successful drive on Mars resulted in a dusty bedrock workspace with nodules and small raised ridges in front of the rover. Curiosity also has a view towards larger scale, dark, resistant ridges that we have noticed within the more subdued and lighter coloured, more typical bedrock in this area.
The science team decided to investigate the chemistry and texture of one of the small, r

Sending Life to the Stars
Sunday, 09 January 2022 08:30
Santa Barbara CA (SPX) Jan 07, 2022
No longer solely in the realm of science fiction, the possibility of interstellar travel has appeared, tantalizingly, on the horizon. Although we may not see it in our lifetimes - at least not some real version of the fictional warp-speeding, hyperdriving, space-folding sort - we are having early conversations of how life could escape the tether of our solar system, using technology that is with

New year's mission to start new phase of exoplanet research
Sunday, 09 January 2022 08:30
Birmingham UK (SPX) Jan 07, 2022
A mission to one of the coldest and most remote places on earth will enable a new phase in the search for distant planetary systems. University of Birmingham PhD researcher Georgina Dransfield has travelled to the Franco-Italian Concordia Research Station in Antarctica, to oversee the installation of a new state-of-the-art camera at the ASTEP (Antarctic Search for Transiting ExoPlanets) telescop

No returning to climate of the past even with CO2 reduction
Sunday, 09 January 2022 08:30
Pohang, South Korea (SPX) Jan 01, 2022
While the entire world focuses on achieving carbon neutrality - zero carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions - a new research shows climate change in some regions is inevitable even if the already increased CO2 level is reduced. As CO2 decreases, the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) shifts southwards, which can trigger persistent El Nino conditions. El Nino refers to a phenomenon in which the sea su

Bringing the Sun into the lab
Sunday, 09 January 2022 08:30
Dresden, Germany (SPX) Jan 04, 2022
Why the Sun's corona reaches temperatures of several million degrees Celsius is one of the great mysteries of solar physics. A "hot" trail to explain this effect leads to a region of the solar atmosphere just below the corona, where sound waves and certain plasma waves travel at the same speed. In an experiment using the molten alkali metal rubidium and pulsed high magnetic fields, a team from t
